Sue de Beer isn't reluctant to explore artistic subject matter that most
would deem repugnant-adolescent suicide, high-school shootings, a
repulsive birth-yet this approach has yielded her more than 50
exhibitions internationally. Her videos and installations have been
likened to David Lynch films, Edward Kienholz's creepy found-object
sculptures and, in one New York Times review, to "an after-school
special from hell." At age 37, she has both baffled her critics and
landed her work in the collections of MoMA, the Whitney and the New
Museum.

Now transplanted from Berlin to Brooklyn, the artist will have her
biggest U.S. exhibition yet, opening Feb. 3, when her video about a
hypnotist who controls a money manager is screened in the period rooms
of the Park Avenue Armory. She is currently at work on a new show slated
for March at the Marianne Boesky gallery.

The Observer sat down with Ms. de Beer to explore her peculiarly
American brand of gothic.

Peter Duhon: Tell us about the project at the Park Avenue Armory.

Sue de Beer: The Ghosts, an Art Production Fund project, is primarily
an exhibition of a new film, although there will be sculptural pieces. I
started The Ghosts saying I wanted to make a giallo (Italian crime and
horror film), but it isn't really a giallo now.

PD: And the Boesky exhibition?

SdB: It is called "depiction of a star obscured by another figure." It
is about eclipses, which in a way Ghosts is also about-one body
eclipsing another. We're building an 8-foot drop ceiling in the gallery
that will be transluscent white. It is the first time I will have an exhibition without
video as a primary focus; it will also have a sculpture based on an
early animation machine from the turn of the last century. Shamin Momin
is curating a show in Marfa, Texas, and she asked me to turn a building
into a sculpture.

PD: You were born in Tarrytown, raised in Boston, went to Parsons and
Columbia. How is your background a part of your work?

SdB: New England aesthetics has had a strong influence on my work.
Especially painters like John Singer Sargeant. I was raised in Salem and
very close to Salem. The 17th-century architecture which has this Louise
Nevelson quality to it.

PD: It's been said that you are a "true American" artist? What do you
think about that statement?

SdB: I didn't really consider myself to be an American artist until I
was exhibiting in Europe. Then I really understood how American or how
my worldview was American.

PD: What are some qualities of this Americana?

SdB: Optimism and humor mixed in with seriousness. Although my work can
be quite dark, I have a sympathy for the characters.

PD: You started winning awards about a decade ago. Did it change your
life, your work?

SdB: I was able to make work without having a job. It moved me to
Europe; at that point I had been traveling to Europe but never had a
chance to live there.

PD: When did you know you wanted to be an artist?

SdB: I don't know. I was expelled from high school, which was very
positive for me. I decided to become an artist after that; it felt like
a good decision. I didn't have many other options anyway.

PD: Now you teach at N.Y.U. Is it a good time for young artists right
now?

SdB: I think it is, but I think it is a very difficult time for young
people in general. I'm shocked at the lack of decent paying jobs,
considering the size of student loans.

PD: Would you recommend Berlin to artists?

SdB: Yes, but you have to be economically independent to do it. It is
difficult to be an auslander and find work, so you have to be making
money off of your work. Berlin is filled with history and there is
something haunting and uncanny about it. The city enters into your
blood, very strange, and it gives you very vivid dreams.